Abel to Yzerman

This isn’t Pittsburgh. It’s not Chicago or San Jose. It’s Minnesota. And it’s where Zach Parise and, more humorously in a sad way, Ryan Suter will languish for the next 7, 10, 13 years.

Family Circle and Oprah, the Lifetime Channel and “hockey-mad” Minnesota can point to this as a wondrous decision made by two men who want to be friends forever and enjoy the solitude that a small market affords them. Family first. Friends always.

Cupless.

What a flawed decision. We’re going to hear about a pipeline of talent coming to Minneapolis. They’ve been building it for years and years. It’s right there on the cusp, ready to explode and join Parise and Suter. Contenders, by god. Contenders.

And happy. Happy together in Minny, where the expectations are low, the glare is dull and the Cup shall never visit.

It’s funny. Were this the Pens, it would be disgusting. Heartbreaking. Chicago? Terrifying.

It’s Minnesota. And that’s literally funny.

This is going to be interesting, to see the steps made by legitimate hockey men to kiss these two asses. Mike Ilitch flew to Madison and came away with nothing. That makes me sick. Who the hell is Ryan Suter to turn down Mike Ilitch in favor of…Craig Leipold? Your call, big boy. Own it. Live with it.

Cuplessly.

Next Kenny? Semin. Doan. A deal for Yandle.

Money to spend. Holes to fill.

I don’t blame Holland. Not one bit. These two ladies wanted to play together in a quiet patch of daisies. They got what they wanted.

I would honestly try to sign Weber to an offer sheet and if that fails, I’d rather take my lumps for a couple years than shoot money out of a fire hose at mediocre guys like Matt Carle. I’ll probably be run off this site on a rail for that point of view but whatever. And if we sign Shane fuchin Doan that’s it, I’ll be living off the grid.

Take it from a Caps fan—you don’t want Semin. The guy is amazing—when he shows up, which is about 40% of the time. He’s also good for at least 1 offensive zone/hooking penalty per game. Uncle Mike will physically explode after a few games of watching him play.

Semin makes Alexei Yashin look like a good hockey player.

Posted by
Right Winger
from Centreville, VA on 07/04/12 at 02:48 PM ET

13yr 98mil contracts for both! That’s crazy money for way to long for 27yr olds.

Talk about bad timing to have money to spend on the open market. This is realisticly the pool of players left to bolster the wings team this season. I really hope the youngsters can get it done enough to hit the Feb trade deadline. This is a blue line we haven’t seen since Chaisson was our anchor on the back end. Scary, but oddly exciting knowing that we’re finally going to get our wish of seeing the kids play before they over ripen.

If Kenny doesn’t now go out and get at least 1 of Carle and Yandle and at least 1 of Semin, Nash, or Ryan, this offseason will have been a complete failure.

If he can’t get at least that, he may as well punt, not even spend to the cap, and wait until the 2013 or 2014 crop of FAs.

Posted by Mandingo from The Garage on 07/04/12 at 12:34 PM ET

I disagree.

Carle or Yandle are not first-pairing material (on a good team) and never, ever will be. And would now have to be incredibly overpaid to get them boot.

DET could have gotten Suter, then traded for Nash or Ryan or something and been OK I guess. Or Parise and traded for Bouwmeester even maybe.

They can’t trade to fill both though without throwing the future completely away, and there’s not a single d-man or forward left on the market that can make enough of an impact to fix DET’s problems.

Ken Holland failed. Period.

Don’t even waste time with the trades at this point. No one trade is going to turn this team into a Cup winner this year. Keep your assets, and just play the kids for God’s sake. Play the crap out of Kindl, Smith, Emmerton, Mursak, and Nyquist and see what happens. And admit Tootoo was a huge, expensive mistake now that there are too many other holes and cut him loose. It might make for a painful season this one season, but it’s better than f*cking up 4 or 5 seasons which is precisely what a knee-jerk signing of a Semin or Carle would be now.

Mark my words, this is going to be a REALLY short honeymoon. It also means that the Wild will lose ALOT of money unless they can make the Conf Finals in the next two years.

Posted by
BobaFett
from Las Vegas on 07/04/12 at 02:51 PM ET

for once i couldn’t agree more, the one good thing is at least it will reduce the canucks advantage in their division. Welcome to Pierre Maguires new favorite team.

Posted by
Dan
from Chicago on 07/04/12 at 02:52 PM ET

You really can’t be serious about Semin. I’m a Pens fan, and I couldn’t name even one Pens fan who wants to sign that guy.

That’s because you are super dumb (and your team has lots of scoring already).

Semin is one of the most skilled players in the league. He came out and said he wants to be a more complete player. Mark my words, he is gonna slay for somebody this year, and no one will remember all the people who have no idea how to evaluate a player (let alone the Pens/Caps hype rivalry).

This is the guy I wanted to see next to Datsuyk all along.

Posted by
tuxedoTshirt
from the Home of the 1937 World Champions on 07/04/12 at 02:54 PM ET

Ken Holland failed. Period.

Posted by Primis on 07/04/12 at 12:50 PM ET

Would you have spent $200 million over 13 years for both of them?

That’s crazy money and term. Not saying it won’t turn out to have been a good move, but damn that’s a long time and a lot of money.

Posted by
tuxedoTshirt
from the Home of the 1937 World Champions on 07/04/12 at 02:56 PM ET

Would you have spent $200 million over 13 years for both of them?

That’s crazy money and term. Not saying it won’t turn out to have been a good move, but damn that’s a long time and a lot of money.

Posted by Mandingo from The Garage on 07/04/12 at 12:55 PM ET

Yes because the trade market values are sky high right now (the prices for a Ryan or Nash are astronomical), and because the disparity between them and the rest of the market was so great.

Keep this in mind as well: we don’t know what free agency from next season on will even be like. Who will qualify, what the cap will be, etc. We don’t know that if DET carries that cap room over, if they’ll get to actually keep it. Spend it NOW.

Mmm. You guys just hate Phoenix way too much. Yandle is a #1 on half the teams in the league, and he is still young and fairly priced.
Doan is a beast and you will all get over your silly grudge if they sign him.

Posted by
tuxedoTshirt
from the Home of the 1937 World Champions on 07/04/12 at 02:59 PM ET

This whole thing reminds me of the perpetual dork who finally manages to snag a sweet, expensive ride - then promptly crashes it into a tree because he DOESN’T KNOW WHAT THE HELL HE’S DOING.

We don’t know that if DET carries that cap room over, if they’ll get to actually keep it. Spend it NOW.

Posted by Primis on 07/04/12 at 12:58 PM ET

Someone will jump on this, I should correct it to read “

Spend it NOW on someone worthy

“. None of those other dregs left in the pool are worthy. Sorry, but terrible UFA crop and I get the feeling UFA crops are only going to get worse as these long-term deals continue because I don’t think they’re going to legislate it out in the end.

About Abel to Yzerman

Welcome to Abel to Yzerman, a Red Wing blog since 1977. No other site on the internet has better-researched, fact-laden and better prepared discussions than A2Y. Re-phrase: we do little research, find facts and stats highly overrated and claim little to no preparation. There are 19 readers of A2Y. No more, no less. All of them, except maybe one, are juvenile in nature. Reminding them of that in the comment section will only encourage them to prove that. Your suggestions and critiques are welcome: wphoulihan@gmail.com